Religion sucks

[Woah]

Religion itself does not suck, but blindly following one type of religion does suck. You should keep your mind open, and make your own opinions.

[Enoch]

instead of rocking on religions learn what is necesary for us PAGANS to know about it. There are many very important details and even astral travels (see revelations) in the bible. many religions are just old pagan beliefs all dolled up to look less offensive or less mystical. Why but of course they cannot use pagan or witch holidays and ideas they burned and murdered all of us for so long it would not be right. 

[sagetab]

It is not religion that sucks per se: All the "Book Religions" advocate peace and love thy neighbour (and thine enemy)... it is the people who pervert the religion and use it for their own goals and aspirations, (like world dominance  ), that give religion a bad name. If EVERYONE were to follow the tenets of these religions... including tolerance, especially with us Pagans... then we WOULD have world peace... as these religions intended in the first place.

I was told, a few months ago, by my hubby's church elders wife, that there is NO WAY I can possibly be a Witch because I have too much compassion and kindness and love in me... go figure!!! Naturally I told her that that is BECAUSE I am a Witch... 

[Enoch]

Exactly. No one understands us. Except us. lol And really i dont care as long as im not hunted and burned at the stake. Even if i was it would just motivate me more...
I just dont want any of "us" to make the mistake of not learning from the bible(s) there is so much fact and so much that explains pretty much everything we would want to know. Some is violated and changed by councils and kings and whatever to make us better "scared" followers but in the end there is alot of fact to.
The secrets of the holy grail being one. And also John's Revelations is mostly an astral projection thats how he recieved the infromation he needed. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge (of good and evil) are also very important to know about.   

[sagetab]

Presactly... 

I was brought up in a very strict Christian home and was... believe it or not... a Sunday School teacher and evangelist at one stage... so I know both sides of the coin very well... and, naturally, have my own interpretations of the Bible... I cannot refute that the Bible is a very good teacher, if only people would just listen and not pervert the words to their own ends. (Theory has it that Moses and Hermes, the father of Alchemy, are one and the same person).

I believe in the tenet... what works for you is RIGHT!!! (as long as it is not EVIL... )

But here is something I received one day:

SPIRITUALITY VS.  RELIGION
Spirituality says that god is within us and that we don't need anyone else to make that divine connection for us
Religion says that we are separated from god and that we need "them" to make that divine connection 

Spirituality says that we are free to make choices on our own and that we must take personal responsibility for our actions
Religion says we must make their choices and act their way

The theme of spirituality is unconditional love
The theme of religion is fear and guilt

Spirituality does not require us to make donations
Religion has become big business

Spirituality says there is no hell, no judgment, no angry god... that we are loved unconditionally
Religion says there is a hell, god gets angry and judges us... therefore, we are not loved unconditionally

Spirituality says we are free to choose our own path to god
Religion commands us to do it their way

Spirituality says we go to god to lighten our burden
Religion has taught us to fear their god

Spirituality says we should not be ashamed of our sexuality... that it should be a sacred celebration of love
Religion has taught us to feel ashamed, guilty and dirty about our sexuality

Spirituality teaches us to honor and respect mother earth
Religion has told us to "be thou fruitful, multiply and subdue the earth"  I repeat... "subdue the earth"

Spirituality reminds us that we are one with god and one with each other
Religion teaches disunity and separation which is the opposite of god 

Spirituality says god is within
Religion says he is in heaven and that "they" are the only intermediaries for us

Spirituality says we are born in innocence and purity
Religion says we are born with sin 

Spirituality teaches that we are on a long spiritual adventure and journey which will ultimately end by reuniting with our source
Religion says we've got one life to get it all right and there is nothing but heaven or hell after that

Spirituality says we are free to express
Religion gave us the dreaded inquisition

Spirituality teaches unconditional love for all
Religion gave us the crusades in which many were killed and slaughtered in the name of god

Spirituality teaches that we should love one another unconditionally and always honor the rights and choices of others
Religion treated native americans, the mayans and other indigenous cultures as savage primitives who "must be saved"

Spirituality teaches peace and harmony
Religion has caused more wars and more killing than any other reason


Spirituality says respect all living things I never once heard any
Religion say stop slaughtering millions of trees every year for Christ's birthday 

Spirituality teaches us to have faith in ourselves
Religion teaches us to have faith in them

Spirituality says we have all the answers... that we can find them by "going within"
Religion teaches us that it has all the answers and only its answers are the right ones

Spirituality teaches us to search for the universal truths and our hearts will tell us when we have found them
Religion teaches we have no choice but to accept their version of the truth
 
Which one feels better to you? spirituality or religion?  Go to your heart for the answer it will never lie to you.
Original author unknown but appreciated


Again, it is what YOU make of it that makes your spiritual path what it is.

I hate the ones that go to church, don't even listen to the sermon, then go home and bash the kids or wife or get drunk.... you know what I mean... (my hubby is a classic example)!!!

[jub jub]

I quit going to church the day that my Pastor came over to the house to tell me that he would "blow away" my daughter's boyfriend if he ever stepped foot in the yard again.

I asked him "What would Jesus use, 44 or 9 mil?"


Bastard!

[Woah]

I asked him "What would Jesus use, 44 or 9 mil?"

Holy frig that's amazing! Way to go! 

[Ryuji]

I asked him "What would Jesus use, 44 or 9 mil?"

lmao 

[James S]

That's a brilliant response Jub Jub!

Puts that whole situation into perspective beautifully!!

I remember long ago when I was caught up in a pentecostal church, my girlfriend at the time was not interested in coming with me to that church. I made the mistake of going to the pastor to seek some guidance. He told me that if she won't come to the church, leave her, she's no good for me.

What kind of an attitude was that? How was that meant to encourage people to follow the Christian faith?

[Enoch]

Religous leaders can only guide us nothing more. So brainwashed with there belief they cannot see outside the box ever.

[lunabombed]

I dont follow nor believe in religion, but I do believe there are higer beings that help us.

[CFTraveler]

You are SO wrong. Many religions have a spiritual path to them....MANY....Why the hell do you think most of the world hates the united states? Bacause we are spiritually STAGNANT. We are as bad and worse than what everyone says about us, we literally are the infidel.
If i did not live here i would hate us to...We go in kill people for our own goals than send in the missionaries to change everyones religion.
We sit with our fast food (gluttony) and we spend more than any country in the world...(materialism) and we pay NO attention to our spirit. Dont get me wrong there are good people here and spiritual also. But the majority of christians dont even go to church and have no idea what spirit is and than they come and give us lovely PAGANS a bad name for believing in spirit. The Catholics tried to make sure all of us were dead...There bad, fools that have no idea what a reincarnated souls power can become...To worried about money and greed to pay attention. Well now we are comeing back and soon things will change FOREVER. 

No, the reason other countries hate the US is because it provides them a scapegoat to blame things on when their own systems don't work.  They hate us because many of the worst governments teach their children to hate us and blame us for most of their problems, while their corrupt politicians destroy their own treasuries and provoke poverty in their own countries.  Why worry, their own people will hate us, while they do whatever they want with inpunity.  I have lived through this firsthand so I have seen this happen.
As to:

Fundamentalism is what truly sucks

This is the biggest Truth I have seen in here yet.

[Enoch]

I have also experianced these places first hand. And yes many leaders besides our own are bad. But in the end we are the worst. Freedom to be spyed on my entire life because homeland security now exists is no freedom. And trying to take over the world piece by piece is not democracy.

[CFTraveler]

I have also experianced these places first hand. And yes many leaders besides our own are bad. But in the end we are the worst. Freedom to be spyed on my entire life because homeland security now exists is no freedom. And trying to take over the world piece by piece is not democracy.

But you just said what I have been saying, in other words.  We citizens are not in charge of anything when it comes to 'taking over the world piece by piece', not even in electing the corrupt politicians who make these decisions, making us, the citizens, more vulnerable to others' hate for us.  How is that our fault?  Yet who does the rest of the world hate?  The politicians, or 'Americans'?  When those planes hit the towers in NY it's not politicians that were targeted, it was regular people.  And if any other terrorist actions happen here, you can bet it won't be the politicians, (which IMO are interchangeable) who are targeted, it'll be the people.  And for what?

[Enoch]

I like what you say and maybe we have the same ideas just written differantly. Its hard for me to answer this as i have so many ideas why we are hated. I know that we cannot continue to try and subtley take over the world (ok not so subtle sometimes) and change peoples religions. If we are no allowed to have religion involved in our own government. Than we have no right to take a country and send in missionaries.
I see that iraq is a bad place for the citizens. I realize most of them appreciate what we are doing. But in the end its just for the control and the money. We have so much work to do here we need to concentrate on ourselves some.
what really botherrs me in all this is us. Its Homeland security that now places any and everything we do under the category of terrorism so they can manipulate and do as they wish with the people here. We removed the leadr of iraq they have there own security in place and much help from us. Now lets move on. Your never EVER going to be able to eliminate terrorism. Its like saying your going to eliminate drugs totally. Its just not feasible.
If someone comes to my country goes door to door takeing weapons and poeple that are questionable. Than blows bombs the excrement out of me (no matter how accurate). And Than sets up its own government you gonna be calling me a terroist to when i hit the streets with my rifle.
I dont have all the answers but i do know what we are doing is not right. We are to fast to draw weapons and to dangerous to be unleashed by the people controlling us at the moment. No secret society people should be makeing any decisions about this country.   

[EqualThoughts]

hey enoch
how do you know hell is real? u been there?
swat i thought noob

PS- Religion makes baby jesus cry

-Thoughts

[Enoch]

Actually yes. Ive been on the first level of hell quite a few times. You more than likely have as well while dreaming. To bad with an attitude like yours your never going to remember the trip. Please make sure you know the facts before you speak. Im the firthest thing from a noob your going to meet. Just because someone does not have alot of posts here does not at all mean there a noob. So please as i said watch what your saying.
Religion does not bother Jesus in the least. at least with religion we have a slight chance of saveing some of the fools that live here. Most people will not even except what i do and am so like i said they have religion. No matter how far from the truth it may be people get a chance to feel a side of there spiritual self. What does bother Jesus is the profit makeing (above and beyond just makeing a living) that religion has produced. But with all do respect in the end of times religous leaders and politicians will be the first overcome by the darkness. Who better to manipulate. 

[EqualThoughts]

well  my apologies enoch didnt know i was communicating with an ascended master!! you must forgive my petty words please dont smite me down with your mighty powers

Ps -- holy excrement take  a joke man 

pss ive never been to hell dont tell me ive probably been there---thats like saying... youve been to australia you just dont rememer... wtf does that even mean

[Woah]

pss ive never been to hell dont tell me ive probably been there---thats like saying... youve been to australia you just dont rememer... wtf does that even mean

1. No fighting you two.
2. We have hundreds of dreams every night, we just usually only remember a select few. What Enoch was saying was that you've probably been there in a dream, but don't remember it.

[Enoch]

Sorry equal its been a very long week for me. Although i would love to be i would never pretend to be some master. The first level of heel by the way is sort of what you would expect. Simple sinners go there. It would be called purgatory and many other things depending on religion and history.

[Arn de Gothia]

We are all living in Hell right this very moment, I can't think of a more horrible place than planet Earth

[Enoch]

Earth is what we make of it. But hell and heaven are close, Very close. Remember my friend in the later ages of this planet the believers are all that stand between humanity and hell. He lives amongst us but that does not mean we need to make the sins of this planet ours. we only live in this many of the lords mansions for awhile. Look at the earth as being the "womb" for our soul. We can choose to stray with the flock or we can be the black sheep and tread our on path and destination.   
Lucifer wants the large majority and he does a good job of it.

[Zante]

I have no idea what I am doing in this thread. I think I might be lost or something. Well, seeing as I'm here I'd like to ask what it was you were resonating so strongly with to experience your perception of "hell" first-hand?

[Ryuji]

religion is a man made thing to drive the masses and be milked as a cash caw 


~our worst enemy is religion it self.

[Psionic]

Religion makes people believe in God instead of making people know God. This kills the opportunity for a person to become enlightened because enlightenment comes from knowing.